PopCap On Casual Gaming

Gamasutra has an article on the ever-burgeoning market for casual gamers, with commentary by the people who know the most about it. James Gwertzman is the Director of Business Development at PopCap Games, and he talks about the business side of the non-hardcore market. From the article: "One, of course, is to raise the quality bar - but there are risks there. No one wants to go the path of traditional $30 million games. And second, we are continuing to try to maintain our high level of reputation. Making clones of existing games isn't as profitable as it used to be. We're trying hard to continue innovating."

So.... (FP?)

[Headcase88]

Did they hire the guy who made Fishy [newgrounds.com], was it just a coincidence that both of their games involve having a fish that eats smaller things, or was someone at Popcap one of the 2 million views of the game?

Zuma

[lightblade]

I've always been a fan of Zuma [popcap.com].

Re:Zuma

[Danse]

I've always been a fan of Zuma.

I actually prefer Luxor [download-free-games.com] to Zuma. It just feels like it's more polished and plays smoother.

Casual? Not for long

[owlman17]

Maybe at first. There's nothing casual about playing Bejeweled 5-6 hours (or more) a day, everyday, to get to the top. I ought to know. Heh.

PopCap Games are ADDICTING!

[stpitner]

I have to force myself not to go to popcap.com and play the games. They are so incredibly addicting and a ton of fun. It will be nice to see Zuma 2 when that's done.

One game that my wife and I play a lot is Typer Shark. It's really been a good aide in getting our typing speeds up. It's a fun way to do it too! She creams me every time with her 85-90+ wpm lol. I can't top 75 unless I'm having a really good day.

I hope that PopCap is able to continue to make great games. I'd love to see some PopCap stuff

Re:PopCap Games are ADDICTING!

[DeafByBeheading]

Damn right. I indulged in Bookworm for the first time in months, spent most of an evening with it, and almost got to 700,000 points before I had the good sense to quit. They're a little *too* addictive.

Re:On PopCap Support

[MindStalker]

I know this is a troll but I've run many popcap games behind firewalls and WITH antivirus programs. Yes their tech support is pretty low end, thats because most of their games just work, and as you probably didn't purchase a copy they arn't under any obligation to help you anyways. Either way try them again, 2 years was a long time ago and yes they did have to work out some bugs in their early programs.

Pricing

[duncangough]

There's a big thread about Casual Game pricing on the Casual Games mailing list that's well worth a read:

http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/casual_games/2 005-December/000570.html [pairlist.net]

The whole $20 price point seems pretty fixed but I don't know how long for. As a gamer, I hope it becomes more dynamic. As a developer, I'm not so sure.

For anyone wanting to get into Casual Games, as a developer or as a gamer, there are worse places to start that then review of 2005 on GameTunnel:

http://www.gametunnel. [gametunnel.com]

Re:Pricing

[nb caffeine]

I buy used xbox titles for $20 or less. As a (somtimes) indie game developer, I want to release my games below that price point. Maybe i have low self esteem and dont think my games are worth that, but I also know that I don't really want to pay that either. So, I decided to sell em cheap and keep my dayjob (that also keeps the game deving fun)

Not all indie games are clones

[snuf23]

Not a popcap game, but one of my favorites is Oasis [oasisgame.com]. While it is essentially a puzzle game, the use of the Egyptian setting and the exploration, empire building flavor make it a lot more interesting than countless click on colored blocks puzzle games.
I don't think it's a clone of other games, although I could be wrong.